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Tuesday, December 31, 2013

One of the most generous people I know in crafting blogland is Heather Hudson. We met in cyberspace and our orbs have intersected on several design teams.

Heather is always there for me when I have a question about digital crafting or technical issues with my blog. She really knows her way around a computer and can whip up something in no time--while I'm still thinking about how to get it going.

I use the adjective generous because she gives of her time and talent without question or asking for something in return. Like any other true friend, I know she'll always be there for me. And I for her. Which leads me to one of the 2014 surprises I mentioned in my last post....

I am embarking on an artistic adventure with Heather. To go along with her awesome digital collage sheets that she sells in her Etsy shop, she is starting:

Heather has a distinct vintage style which I just love, being very vintage myself! I'm honored to help her launch her new challenges. I didn't think twice when she asked me, and there was about a one second turn-around time for my response--YES!

Please return on January 2 to see what I createdwith Heather's digital collage sheets as inspiration for her first challenge.

In the meantime, please visit Heather's Etsy shop where I know you will drool over her collage sheets and whet your appetite for the upcoming challenge. Further enticement to play along with us includes a 15% off $5.00 or morepurchase:

coupon code: MYARTISTICADVENTURES

And would you please post our challenge badge on your blog?

The html code can be found in the left sidebar at Heather's BLOG. She also offers lots of YouTube tutorials (I told you she was very generous!), including one on how to insert html codes on your blog.

Have a very merry New Year's Eve and a very Happy New Year!

Hope you have time to stamp/scrap alot (as in the ideal world of Camelot where Queen Helene has Lotsa Scrap time) !

Monday, December 30, 2013

I would make a list of crafting New Year's Resolutions but I miserably fell short this year of accomplishing much of anything on my list.

Instead, I'll tell you about a few new projects I'm working on.

First, I plan to seriously work on Christmas all year. There are several challenge blogs to keep me motivated. I don't necessarily need a lot of cards, but I need gift envelopes, package tags, and a few ornaments. This year I made photo tags (as you can see in this photo) through Sandi's Bank on Christmas project at her blog Maximum Embellishment.

They were such a huge hit that I'm doing it again, with different photos.

Many of us are taking a Christmas crafting breather right now. But I'd like to remind you that the Gecko Galz design team has all their ornaments on display and ready for you to vote for your favorite HERE. The winner will be announced December 31 so please take a moment to vote.

Second, I want to swap some art this year. I'm a Red Lead Swap Sister. Red Lead Paperworks (St. Louis, MO) is having a monthly ATC swap. Join in any and all months that fit into your schedule. Make 4, swap 3. The Red Lead sisters will keep the fourth one to display in the store and perhaps submit them for publication. You can read more about it HERE. I have lots of Red Lead products so I'm looking forward to putting them to good use. The January swap is to make pocket Valentines. I also want to mention Red Lead offers a free digital image every Wednesday---find them on FB or sign up for their email info. They just posted (12/30/2013) a Valentine chunky book giveaway!

Third, I need to make things for my family. That means they may not show up on my blog even though I'll be very busy. But I have several things to get done such as a wedding scrapbook, family cookbook, and some assignments for an upcoming wedding.

Fourth, I want to visit my blogging buddies more often in order to keep up with their news and art projects.

I'm continuing with my design team obligations and will have a surprise or two along the way in 2014. I've been very lucky to have won some great products by entering on-line challenges so I want to be sure to use those products in my art.I'll be back on January 1 and again on January 2 with new blog posts! See you on the flip side in 2014. May the New Year bring you everything you need to be happy and blessed!

Friday, December 27, 2013

The Tag Tuesday players are taking a holiday break so I'm catching up with last week's prompt: Starry Night. Be sure to visit Tag Tuesday to see all the players' tags. Lots of inspiration there!

I used a Darice star embossing folder on white cardstock. I like how my silver foil trim mimics the points of the background stars. Tag is edged with Ranger Brushed Pewter Distress Stain. Ribbon is shiny silver.

Sunday, December 15, 2013

This time around the Gecko Galz design team is creating holiday ornaments. As usual, the [projects are displayed at the Gecko Galz website HERE. After all of them are showcased, you will get to vote for your favorite. Voting begins December 24.

Here is mine:

Print and fussy cut angel image. There are several Gecko Galz digital images of angels. This particular angel is from the Angels collage sheet. Edge with Ranger Distress Marker: vintage photo

Position Grand Gothic Window (Poppystamps) or other shrine shape on papers and die cut.
This die gives you two pieces. I used both papers to create the frame and window insert.
Outline with Ranger Distress Marker: bundled sage.

Adhere angel to window.

Add trims: gold Starform stickers, gold medallion, gold cord

Please take time to visit the Gecko Galz site to see all the design team ornaments.

Saturday, December 14, 2013

For my design team project this month at Gecko Galz, I used the Blue Willow digital paper and Vintage Toppers collage sheet to create this card:

To give it some depth, I used Stampin' Up Night of Navy card stock for the card base, banner, and image mat die cut with Stampabilities Nestabilities Lacy Square. I added dimension to the banner by embossing it with a Stampin' Up Petals a Plenty folder.

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Making it easy on us, Debi is asking us to post our favourite project of the year for the latest Craft Room Challenge.

In April I was a Guest Designer for the Craft Room Challenge Blog. It just so happened that Rogue Redhead Designs, LLC was the prize sponsor that month. I'm on the RRD design team. So I used my favorite RRD stamp plate, Relish Reading, to create my Craft Room GDT project.

Here is my sample: In the Library
Details can be found HERE on my original blog post.

Now that winter is upon us, we spend a lot of time in our library. This project seems very fitting for this end of year wrap up. I can only sit and dream of warm days.

What I like about this project:

1. It represents what I like about the craft blog world: offering my art to design teams, sharing my work with others, meeting and appreciating other artists and their work, making on-line friendships

2. I get to use my favorite stamps

3. This is a good example of my type of work: papercrafting with die cuts, fussy cutting, stamping, paper layering.

To conclude: This is my single entry for the Craft Room challenge: Favourite Project of 2013.
Thank you, Debi, for this great challenge idea!

Sunday, December 8, 2013

Materials:
The particular angel I used on my tag can be found here in two different collections:Gecko Galz Vintage Angels digital collage sheet
Luna Girl Moonbeams Etsy shop

A photo I took today when we attended a funeral at St. Mary's church in central Missouri
Paperwhimsy.com for Comfort and Joy banner
Ranger Vintage Photo Distress MarkerRogue Redhead Designs Behind the Scenes stamp plate for the music on the snowflakes
Stampendous vinyl stickers: dot sparklers silver

I was in the ninth grade when President Kennedy was assassinated. The emotion associated with that moment in time has never lessened for me
.Don't let it be forgot that once there was a spot for one brief shining moment that was called Camelot.

I started with a castle tower image from the November Gecko Galz digital stamp set. Using my software, I altered the image to create a collapsing effect. The text also is computer generated.

Friday, November 8, 2013

The Tag Tuesday players' theme this week is "proverbs". When I did an internet search, I came across this one:A book is like a garden carried in the pocket.
hmmmm.....I just happen to own a Rogue Redhead Designs Stamp Plate, Relish Reading, which includes that proverb as one of the sentiments. How fortuitous!

There is nothing better than curling up with a good book, a cozy blanket, and a cup of hot chocolate on a cold winter's day. We can only dream about that beautiful backyard garden and wait for spring!

Going with both the tag and pocket concepts, I chose to use a library book pocket as the base. This will be a Christmas present for my hubby with a hidden gift card to a book store included in the pocket. And the checkout card can always double as a bookmark!

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Thanks to everyone who stopped by my blog during the Gecko Galz Blog Hop. Congratulations to the winners of the prizes. I'm still in the tea mode--this time the Black Hat Society is meeting for Halloween tea.

This is my contribution as a player at Tag Tuesday. Please stop by the Tag Tuesday blog to see what the other players created for this week's theme: Oct 29: Halloween.

Friday, October 25, 2013

I
am the next stop on your “hop”. Welcome to my blog! If you started here
you might want to go back and start at the beginning at the Gecko Galz blog so you won’t miss anything!

We
have 15 AMAZING blogs for you to visit this weekend, each with some
gorgeous projects created using the Gecko Galz collage images, that we
are giving you for FREE! Each blog you visit will have another free
Gecko Galz Collage sheet for you to download,The one here is "Two For
Tea".

Also
make sure you collect all the secret words on each blog so at the end
of the hop you can enter to win our wonderful treat. So sit back,
relax, take your time and enjoy the hop!

We have FOUR amazing prizes up for grabs:

·First is the ephemera collections for each month for an entire year. That is 48 different sets! This is a $144 value

·Second
prize is a The monthly paper pack for an entire year! Each month you
will receive our paper pack absolutely FREE! This is a $72 value.

·Third prize is all 3 individual collage sheets each month for a year! This is a $54 value

·And
our Grand Prize ONE FULL YEAR of Gecko Galz COLLECTIONS!!! That will
be 1 paper pack, 1 digital stamp set, and 4 collage sets each month for
the entire year! This is a prize worth $288

Read on to learn how you can win!

First
of all, you will need to visit all 15 blogs and leave a comment on each
blog :) **This is important so we know you have been to all the blogs
**. Collect all Fifteen words (one on each blog site) and at the end of
the blog on the Fripperies and Butterflies site there will be a link to
email the phrase to Gecko Galz. This enters you in the contest. On
October 28th we will randomly draw the 4 winners and email
each of you, then we will post the winning names on our website and on
the Gecko Galz blog site.

For an extra chance to win make a purchase from the Gecko Galz site and your name goes in again for a better chance of winning (each purchase you make that weekend gives you
another chance to win)

Finally,
we are having one more give away! If you post our Gecko Galz badge
(found on the Gecko Galz Blog) on your blog, facebook page, or website
you will be entered to win a Gecko Store Shopping Spree worth $25 -
super easy right? Just post a link to your blog on the Gecko Galz Blog
so we can come visit :).

My Secret Word for you is;

NEAT

Please enjoy this free Gecko Galz Collage sheet “Two For Tea”Please
do not right click on this sheet to save. Instead, please go to the
post immediately below this one where if you click on the sheet, it will
take you to a high resolution collage sheet to save.LEFT CLICK ON THE TINY SHEET AT THE END OF THIS POST, IT WILL BECOME A LARGE COLLAGE SHEET. THEN RIGHT CLICK ON THE SHEET TO SAVE.

As well as the samples I have made using the images:

Two For Tea:

Miss Meaghan sends Miss Elizabeth an invitation to tea .

This first sample is a DIGITAL invitation using the tea set cropped
and saved as a ping file, then layered onto a postcard cropped from the Gecko GalzPostage collage sheet. Text was added in my PSE software.

Tuesday turned out to be a beautiful warm day to celebrate Miss Meaghan's birthday. She decided to take tea outside, making it a bit of picnic.

Miss Elizabeth was quite taken with the tag on her package, stating she would save it as a remembrance.

What would a tea party be without a card folded to look like a teabag? The template can be found here.
Graphic 45 papers. ( Note the clock is set at 3:00--the same time as the invitation.) Easy to make and perfect for a holiday gift card or a real teabag.

After tea, Miss Elizabeth presented Miss Meaghan with a birthday card. They hugged and promised to take tea again, very soon.

Two for Tea has concluded.

Now you are ready to go to the next blog site and see what wonderful treats await you there. Just click the name to be whisked away to their blog!

And was motivated to get it done in order to link up with Celia's Altered Witch Shoe challenge on her blog, Adventures of the Striped Stockings, which I saw on Tee's blog today. The event started yesterday which means I'm a day late to the party.

Are you using the Challenges for Days blog? It's on my sidebar. I saw quite a few challenges to enter with this shoe. I'll do that later this evening.
Oopsie. I accidentally hit "publish" before I uploaded my photo. So, no, you're not seeing double.

Monday, October 14, 2013

It's time to vote for your favorite Gecko Galz Design Team card made for our National Card Day Challenge.

Just check out all the
entries:
on our Gecko Galz website HERE (see the cards one per page with directions and products used)
or on our blog HERE (see them all together)
then email your vote to us at geckogalz@yahoo.com

And everyone who votes gets a free holiday digital stamp just for taking part.

Sunday, October 13, 2013

It's been quite a while since I blogged and visiting my blogging buddies. Sometimes life just takes us in a different direction. We took a road trip to attend a wedding. At home, I'm busy with some remodeling and redecorating. I miss papercrafting. Today I decided to steal away a bit of time to create a tag and enter some challenges. I appropriately named this tag, Missing You.

I combined two weeks of Tag Tuesday since I'm not sure I will have more hours to get in another tag today. But it was necessary to play since I'm a contributor and haven't played much these past 3 weeks.
Tag Tuesday: Beads, Buttons and Bows
Tag Tuesday: Tattered and Torn
Please stop by the Tag Tuesday blog to see the other tags being made.

Monday, September 30, 2013

Wonderful news! Unruly Paper Arts blogozinewill continue thanks to Dani and Zoe. There will be some new columnists coming aboard. I have decided to take a sabbatical this term in order to devote more time to some important family events coming up in the next six months. However, I will continue to provide a couple of design team inspirations for the Reader Art Quests. And here's the first one......

Happy October! The theme for this month's Unruly Paper Arts issue is Haunting Ways. And the two Reader Art Quests (RAQs) are Black It Out and Going Batty.

Here is my design team inspiration for RAQ 1: Black It Out

I used My Mind's Eye the spider's web Halloween Night12x12 scrapbook paper from my stash. There was so much detail on the paper that I didn't need to do anything to it. Instead, I concentrated on the new chalk technique--for the wood witch (Red Lead Paperworks) and the chalk cardstock.

Using side of chalkboard chalk, rub chalk onto witch and thenrub off with chalk eraser or a piece of felt (I used felt).
Outline the witch with your choice of white marker. I used white chalk.

Use banner die (Stampin' Up) to cut three banners from Chalkstock (Canvas Corp.) Punch holes and lace with Doodletwine. Anchor with bat gems. Using chalk, hand draw border and print letter on each banner.

I think this page would look great framed for the holiday or as a first page in a Halloween album. FYI, I just upgraded the software on my iPhone. It now has a "square" feature on the camera which really helped when photographing this 12x12 page.

As always, I'm looking forward to reading all the columns this month and seeing your art work entered in the Reader Art Quests.